Loopholes Shield Fracking Industry While Families Pay the Price!

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Hagy family, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania

02-27-2013 Ecowatch

Laurel Peltier

In 1989, Dusty and Tamera Hagy bought 81 rural acres in Jackson County, West Virginia. Twenty-one years later, the Hagys sued four natural gas drilling firms alleging the natural gas wells drilled on their property in 2008 contaminated their drinking water and caused physical harm.

The Hagys’ water contamination lawsuit demonstrates how the natural gas industry has built a near-perfect “federal legal exemption’s framework” that when combined with lax or absent state regulations and the legal system’s high costs, inherently approves of citizen collateral damage with no restitution.

The consequence of this framework is that the burden of proof is placed on plaintiffs who, at best, are forced to settle with natural gas companies, thereby sealing the case from public scrutiny, scientific examination and legal precedence. Because the Hagys didn’t sign a non-disclosure agreement with the natural gas companies involved, their legal case gives the public a rare window into how fracking lawsuits play out in reality.

Natural gas is a critical resource. Fifty percent of American residences use natural gas. Natural gas is seen by some as a bridge fuel essential to the U.S.’s strategy to gain energy independence from foreign oil imports. Yet we must ask ourselves: Is the current fracking system one we should support? Are changes needed to level the playing field for all parties involved in fracking? Can fracking be done safely?

The land man cometh

Dusty and Tamera Hagy unwittingly fell into the fracking trap the day they bought their land in 1989. “We loved our 81-acre property, it was our life. We had paid off the mortgage and spent a lot of money fixing the place up. We raised our two boys there, buried our animals there and were  planning to give our boys some property,” said Dusty Hagy.

Mineral rights, fracking chemicals and natural gas federal environmental laws were all Greek to the Hagy family before a pleasant Equitable Production Company representative visited the couple in October 2007.

Equitable Production Company’s representative informed the Hagys that four natural gas wells were soon to be drilled on their property about 1,000 feet up the hill from their home.

In West Virginia, surface land ownership is separate from mineral rights. Mineral rights are the portion of the profits received from minerals extracted from land. Another party owns the Hagy property’s mineral rights which were granted hundreds of years ago. The Hagy family receives no gas royalties and didn’t sign a formal gas leasing contract, though, they did sign plenty of “papers” believing they did not have a choice.

Fracking starts – trucks, noise, explosions, and chemicals

On Nov. 11, 2007, trucks, back hoes, tree cutters and workers converged on the Hagy property uphill and upstream from their home. Equitable outsourced the drilling to BJ Services and for the next six months the holler, or enclosed valley, was flattened for a six-acre natural gas well pad.

Tamera Hagy describes life during the drilling and fracking: “It was nothing like what I had expected. This was a huge operation that lasted day and night for eight months. Trucks went up and down the road 24/7. The smell of fumes would make you sick. One night we heard something like a giant drill bit drilling and vibrating under our house.”

Dusty visited the well pad often and learned from the job crew that this fracking job wasn’t going smoothly. One worker mentioned that they had hit a lake of water and were moving the rig. Another worker shared in this audio tape #3 how the cement casing “went bad” and was re-cemented. Of the four open and lined fracking wastewater ponds, one overflowed and later broke, spilling the fracking wastewater into the nearby creek that flows from the well pad past the Hagy family’s home. In March 2008, Dusty noticed that another fracking pond’s wastewater was emptied by hose into the woods. After finding foam and oil slicks in the creek next to their well, and then when their large pond turned green, the Hagys knew something wasn’t right.

Dusty lodged a formal complaint with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Nov. 17, 2008. DEP records reveal a gas inspector visited the site at the well’s completion and issued no violations. DEP records also reveal the three natural gas wells began producing gas in July 2008 and the wells today continue to produce about 3,000 m.c.f. of gas per month.

Be careful what you sign

As Dusty describes the Equitable representative, “We liked him, and he was a nice enough guy in the beginning and we believed everything he told us at face value.” Equitable said the natural gas drilling was simple and would cause minimal damage on 1.5 acres. When Dusty asked if fracking used anything dangerous, they were told that only water and sand were used, no chemicals were ever mentioned. A water test prior to drilling supported the Hagy’s belief that their water well was clean and safe.

On Oct. 22, 2007, Equitable paid the Hagys $19,000 to cover surface damages to their land and trees because building a well pad trashes the landscape. “I believed the Equitable guy when he said the check was just for surface damages. My property was valued at nearly $200,000. It was stupid to sign that paper, I should have gotten a lawyer,” explained Dusty. Because the well pads used more than the original 1.5 acres, Equitable paid the couple another $10,000 for damage on an additional four acres.

Later in 2008, Dusty learned the papers they had signed to receive the payments were actually damage release contracts attempting to exempt Equitable, and all drilling providers, from any and all damages associated with the drilling. “Other than shooting the family dog, this ‘contract’ covered near everything,” said Dusty Hagy.

Family gets sick—headaches, rashes and vomiting

The family drank, bathed and cooked with their well water from November 2007 to November 2008 during the gas well drilling and fracking. Ironically, the Hagy family had boasted about their pristine well water and even after their adult sons moved out, the boys brought jugs of well water back to their homes.

The Hagys began to notice changes to their water in early 2008. Their water volume was dropping and the water’s color changed from clear to brown. Often black particles were floating in water drawn from their well. Despite overwhelming evidence otherwise, Equitable never reported any issues that would impact the Hagys’ well water.

Adding to the changing water quality, both Dusty and Tamera said they were oddly tired, and woke up with “bad headaches, like a hangover.” Both smelled an “acid” odor in the house and their eyes would burn in certain rooms.

The Hagys didn’t put “two plus two together” until their youngest son went to his family doctor in Columbus, Ohio in October 2008. Their son had complained of nausea and was spitting up blood. His doctor treated him for acid reflux, a disorder he’d never experienced before, and suggested he stop drinking his parent’s well water. The son’s symptoms disappeared soon after he discontinued drinking his parent’s well water.

Tamera Hagy developed a rash that her primary care physician diagnosed as contact dermatitis, a skin inflammation caused by a foreign source. Expert medical testimony in court documents reveal the Hagys’ health symptoms mirrored chemical exposure.

Water tests reveal drinking water was bad and Hagys vacate property

Based on their complaints, Equitable re-tested the Hagy water well on Nov. 8, 2008 and their water had clearly changed. The turbidity, or murkiness, was six times greater post drilling (0.5 to 3.2) and iron, manganese and calcium levels increased significantly (Dusty replaced one hot water heater during this time due to calcium build-up).

Water tests conducted later also revealed arsenic, lead, barium and Bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, an organic compound linked to fracking wastewater. The radon levels of the Hagy well were 1,233 pCi/l with the maximum contaminant level set at 300. When those radon levels were compared to area wells, the Hagy’s radon in their drinking water was markedly higher than eight local U.S. Geologic Survey wells in the area.

However, the water tests conducted before and after drilling were limited and included no tests for known fracking chemicals or volatile organic compounds.

In November 2008, Equitable told the couple, “the water was bad” and to stop drinking the well water and the company began supplying bottled drinking water.

On Jan. 13, 2009, Dusty and Tamera vacated their home and have never moved back. “We thought we were going to die,” said Dusty Hagy.

Relations with Equitable were getting tense; Dusty even began recording phone conversations. Repeated requests for a list of the chemicals used in fracking went unanswered.

Equitable admits “your water’s been affected because of our drilling process.”

Dusty Hagy assumed Equitable would fix the water issue based on phone conversations (audio tape #1) with his Equitable representative who stated on the phone:

“ … for whatever reason the water’s been affected because of our drilling process. But the horizontal portion of it I don’t think had anything to do with it. Something we did had something to do with it. We have done something to the water, and no one was doubting that, but it wasn’t the horizontal part. I’m not doubtin’ that fact and I don’t think anybody’s doubtin’ that, the horizontal portion wouldn’t affect it.”

Equitable offered to drill a new water well which the family declined because they believed the aquifer itself was contaminated. This belief stemmed from a neighbor’s claim that 30 of his animals had died in 2008 during the gas drilling. Plus, Equitable tied any restitution to the couple signing an non-disclosure agreement, or gag order, meant to silence the Hagys and negate any future claims.

Hagy family sues drilling firms

As this phone conversation (audio tape #3) with Equitable reveals, once the family sought legal representation in March 2009, all contact with Equitable stopped. Bottled water deliveries and hotel payments stopped. While the couple searched for a rental home, they lived in their un-heated camper. On a positive note, once they vacated their home, their negative health symptoms dissipated.

The Hagys sued Equitable Production Company, BJ Well, Halliburton and Warren Drilling in October 2009. In short, even with the taped calls, drilling records, photos, videos and water tests, the Hagys’ lawsuit was “dismissed” in August 2012. Judge Goodwin’s opinion stated, “The case presents no genuine issue of materials fact for a jury to determine.” The lawsuit is in the appeals process and the litigation costs to date are $175,000.

How does this happen?

Though the Hagys’ lawsuit appears to provide evidence of water contamination, their dismissed lawsuit supports the claim, “There are no known cases of drinking water contamination from fracking,” often touted by pro-fracking groups.

This claim isn’t true, at least 4 confirmed cases of water contamination exist:

• 1987 Parson’s Family, W. Virginia — Outcome: settled.

• 2011 Paradise Road, Bradford County, PA — Outcome: settled.

• 2012 Fiorentino vs. Cabot Oil, Dimock, PA — Outcome: settled.
• 2012 PA. DEP, Bradford County, PA — Outcome: settled.

Why so few confirmed cases and no case tried before a jury?

More than 40,000 shale gas wells have been drilled since 1996 and at least 825 serious fracking complaints have been lodged, yet only 40 fracking lawsuits have been filed. To date, a jury has never heard a fracking lawsuit.

The answer:

• The natural gas industry is regulated on a state-by-state basis because of the federal legal exemptions granted to the industry.
• Predatory, private contracts signed between firms and individuals favor gas companies.
• The U.S. legal system’s high litigation costs dissuade lawsuits.

How the “the Big 7” exemptions play out in reality

The natural gas industry is exempted from seven major federal environmental laws. These laws in their simplest forms are intended to protect people, places, water and air.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is tasked with enforcing these laws. Because the natural gas industry isn’t regulated by the U.S. EPA at the federal level because of the legal exemptions, natural gas drilling is regulated on a state-by-state basis.

The chart below outlines the seven federal environmental laws exemptions, with many exemptions dating back decades.

http://ecowatch.org/2013/loopholes-shield-fracking-industry/

The latest three exemptions were strategically written into the 1,500 page Energy Policy Act of 2005 and are now infamously named the “Halliburton loophole.” These three short paragraphs focused on eliminating water pollution oversight and also eliminated the strict environmental reviews that federal projects must undertake.

When these exemptions are combined, the benefits to natural gas industry are: no federal EPA oversight therefore pushing fracking regulation to the state level, no scientific testing, no environmental studies, no health and geologic studies and no liabilities for drillers of chemical releases into waterways and air.

The 2005 Energy Policy Act’s strategy was to provide the U.S. with “an abundant, domestic and affordable sources of fuel.” Since 2005, the gas industry has been unhampered by federal regulations and the newer shale gas drilling has grown quickly; U.S. natural gas from shale reserves has grown from one percent to 35 percent of the U.S. supply. This new supply of 8.5 trillion cubic feet of gas has forced natural gas prices down by 50 percent, even spurring coal-based electrical plants to convert to natural gas.

The coffin nail: Toxic Release Inventory exemption

The least known exemption though, the 1986 Toxic Release Inventory of Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, may offer the natural gas industry the biggest shield from liabilities and the greatest obstacle for parties alleging fracking water contamination.

In response to the Bopal, India disaster, when Union Carbide released a harmful gas into an urban area which killed more than 20,000 people, Congress required industries to list harmful chemicals on the Toxic Release Inventory to the EPA. The EPA collects and then disseminates that information to the public and local governments.

Yet, oil and gas companies were exempted from the Toxic Release Inventory, therefore chemical disclosure is different for each of the 29 fracking states. To boot, shale gas production, or fracking, is concentrated in relatively gas-friendly states: Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, West Virginia, Colorado and North Dakota, listed in order of gas production volume.

According to an in-depth National Resources Defense Council report which compares today’s hodgepodge of state-level fracking regulations, no state requires full chemical disclosure. Even new regulations in Texas, the largest shale gas producer, require chemical reporting but do not require “proprietary” chemicals to be listed which can account for 50 percent of the chemicals used in one fracking. The report also concludes that state reporting is inconsistent and significant portions of data are missing altogether.

Adding to the lack of chemical disclosure, only two states (West Virginia and Colorado) inform residents about new wells before drilling. This means that in 27 states, residents are not notified of new drilling, making it impossible to conduct comprehensive (and expensive) water testing before the drilling.

How exemptions play out in the law-can you prove what you drank?

In 2007, Equitable wasn’t legally required to disclose the chemicals used in the fracking, therefore no doctor, no person or group knew what chemicals to test for or what caused the foam in the creek, the color changes in the pond or the compromised water well.

Though water tests revealed the Hagy property drinking water had changed since the drilling had occurred, the tests were not apples-to-apples comparisons.  During the lawsuit’s evidence discovery process, the natural gas firms finally furnished the list of chemical used on the Hagy property which verified the fracking chemicals used weren’t “just water and sand,” as quoted by the Equitable contact.

The absence of verifiable chemical data is displayed in Judge Goodwin’s opinion and order to grant a motion for Summary Judgement, which in layman’s terms means the Hagy lawsuit was dismissed. The burden of chemical exposure proof was placed on the plaintiffs, “to demonstrate amount, duration, intensity and frequency of chemical exposure.” A catch-22.

Gas leases and contracts: The devil’s in the fine print

Adding to the chemical disclosure catch-22 is that most gas leases heavily favor natural gas drillers. In 2011, The New York Times analyzed more than 110,000 shale gas leases and concluded; over half of gas leases provide landowners no restitution in the event of harm, most exclude any explanation of potential harm and a majority of leases include automatic contract extensions that require no landowner approval. Natural gas wells can produce for decades and gas lease contracts can be automatically renewed in perpetuity. Many leases include clauses mandating that damage disputes be heard in arbitration outside of the legal system.

The door-to-door leasing agents who represent gas drillers, a.k.a. landmen, are tasked with getting natural gas leases signed by landowners. Feedback from many landowners is that landmen are very persuasive, personable and often mis-represent facts. These revealing talking points pages were reportedly found by a Ohio homeowner who had been visited by a West Bay Exploration’s leasing agent. The talking points, marked confidential, give sales agents advice to, “not talk about the anti-fracking documentary Gasland, to not discuss chemicals or fracking and to speed up the lease signing before people think about the drilling.”

Many natural gas leases border on predatory in nature as it appears the gas leasing process relies on the ignorance of rural, landowners to enter into binding, private contracts with natural gas drillers.

The Hagys claim they were absolutely unaware they had signed a damage release waiver, twice even. “The Equitable representative sat right on my porch and said the cash was a small payment for the trees and land damage. It wasn’t until November 2008 that I even found out I supposedly had signed away any rights,” said Dusty.

These two damage release forms inadvertently signed by the Hagys have reared their ugly heads during the lawsuit process as another reason Equitable and BJ Services claim they are not liable for any water, health or property damage; the companies claim the Hagys signed away any rights to liabilities and restitution.

Suing a gas company—expensive and grueling

“Fracking has been the tragedy of the commons—freedom to a common, brings ruin to all,” according to Maxwell Kennerly, a trial lawyer at The Beasley firm in Philadelphia. Legally it’s been impossible for plaintiffs to precisely pinpoint exactly what happened underground or link exact chemicals to a situation when those chemicals aren’t divulged and the drilling process isn’t accessible. Any lawyer taking these cases has to be prepared to put their own money and resources on the line to be a trailblazer.”

The first legal team hired by the Hagy family in 2009 dropped the Hagys’ case one year later. During that year the family lost valuable time in conducting water tests and gathering evidence. Their current lawyer, Kevin Thompson, of the Law Offices of Thompson Barney in Charleston, West Virginia, has taken the case on a contingency fee basis. The Hagy family has paid no out-of-pocket expenses. The lawsuit’s litigation costs to date top $175,000.

Lastly, there is an emotional toll for using our legal system to get restitution; it’s a grueling process according to Dusty Hagy. “It’s been hell. For over two years, we’ve been reliving this awful experience. In the back-of-our-minds we realize this may be all for nothing. My wife and I feel we had our most important asset stolen from us, the drinking water that makes our property a place to live, not just 81 acres for animals. It feels like the whole system is stacked against us.”

Where are the Hagys?

Interestingly, the Hagys and 70 of their neighbors who live on a 5-mile stretch of Sugar Creek Road have petitioned Southern Jackson County Public Services to extend public water service to their homes at cost of $2 million. The project is on an 5-year waiting list and there is no guarantee it will ever be completed. According to Karl Vielhaber, general manager for the Southern Jackson County Public Service, the property owners have petitioned for municipal water because most claim their water wells are contaminated from gas drilling. Most of the homeowners haul water to their homes from a coin operated water source.

Dusty and Tamera have moved to a new property with a mortgage, and they still own their vacated property. Equitable’s three natural gas wells still produce gas today and may for years on the Hagys’ vacant property.

The winners and losers

A clear winner in fracking so far is natural gas industry. Fracking cases settled out-of-court provide critical benefits for the gas industry because the settlements include “gag orders” so that injured parties can not discuss the case and its contents. Financially, settlements reduce liabilities for natural gas firms by eliminating unpredictable jury awards. More importantly, settlements help the industry maintain their public relation’s campaign to the media, elected officials, the financial industry and the American consumer that natural gas drilling is clean and safe.

American consumers are also winners in the fracking story. According to the Energy Information Administration, residential gas prices are about 50 percent less than the 2008 natural gas price peak.

Fracking’s losers are the private landowners who have been negatively impacted by fracking and may or may not have received proper restitution. Collectively, the public loses as closed settlements shut down any learning, studies or analysis needed to create uniform industry best practices and build legal precedence for future cases.

Based on evidence and public pressure, Congress finally approved the U.S. EPA to conduct scientific fracking studies. The final study will be available for peer and public review December 2014.

Fracking regulations are slowly developing. The Obama Administration announced federal regulations mandating methane capturing at well sites. State legislatures are slowly developing new rules with Pennsylvania creating some of the toughest legislation over wastewater recycling and charging per well fees to pay for damages. But, as the Center for Energy Economics and Policy’s website and National Resourced Defense Council report illustrate, fracking regulation is complicated and convoluted.

What can you do?

Stories like this can often leave readers with an uneasy question: “What can I do?” Hear are a few ideas.

• Contact your federal and state elected officials. Your state elected officials are key as fracking is exempt from federal regulation and it seems Washington is struggling to make any changes with pretty much anything. Sending a quick email to your state delegates and senator with a link to this post takes 30 seconds and alerts your elected officials that fracking is on your radar screen. Make your opinion on the current process known.
• Choose a fracking group from below that matches your point of view and sign-up for their newsletters. Add them to your twitter feed or friend on facebook to keep abreast of new regulations and issues. If you’re a Flipboarder, add fracking to your list.
• The groups below often include easy “call-to-actions” where your voice can be heard. Interestingly, all but a few people in these groups and grassroots organizations are volunteers.

Maryland: Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Choose Clean Water and Maryland’s Food & Water Watch

Pennsylvania: Protecting our Waters, Susquehanna Riverkeepers and Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air

West Virginia: Frackcheck WV and West Virginia Surface Owner’s Rights Organization

New York: Damascus Citizens for Sustainability

Mid-Atlantic and National: Food & Water Watch, Sierra Club, National Resources Defense Council andEnvironmental Working Group

If you’re interested in reading the natural gas industry’s point of view, Energy in Depth is their policy and communications group.

All photos taken by Dusty Hagy except the photo and story below is from the West Virginia Surface owner’s Right’s Organization.

 

Source:  http://ecowatch.org/2013/loopholes-shield-fracking-industry/

America: Our Govt. Has A Spending Problem!

I think it’s time for us to take a step back, and look at the big, ugly picture in front of us!  The U.S. government has a huge spending problem, and its leaders are gambling away our generations’ and future generations’ taxpayer dollars on a over-bloated U.S. Defense Budget! Why is the U.S. spending more money on defense than half of the world’s industrialized nations combined?  I think the U.S. expansion into Africa (AFRICOM), and its attempted expansion into Central America and South America, in order to preserve its lust for oil and world dominance is a clear indicator.

It is a clear indicator that the U.S. regime has one clear goal which is total global dominance leading up to the New World Order or One-World Government that nobody wants except for the most elite, wealthy weasels that already control world markets. Now those elitists want to dominate every aspect of human life!  So much for freedom and human rights!  Obama’s Executive Orders, and his secret “Executive Actions” which override any orders, are already stripping U.S. citizens bare of the Constitutional rights that were in place to protect them since the founding of America. Meanwhile, our polarized Congress is doing little to nothing to stop what I see as a dictatorial, totalitarian, authoritarian, Orwellian 1984-like society that is unfolding right in front of everyone!  Voting for “the lesser of two evils” (Republicans vs. Democrats) is at an all-time high, every facet of our government has been overrun by CEOs, mega-corporations, Super-PACS, Wall St.‘s gambling addiction, and lobbyists shoveling corporate $money$ into our elected officials’ pockets!

What is our government’s wonderful solution to reducing “wasteful spending?”  Voter-elected legislators want to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and food assistance which are the core programs holding together what is left of our once great nation! After all, that’s what Congress really wants in order to preserve their wealthy lifestyles handed to them by Corporate America!  It’s not about you or us.  It’s all about how much greed and power, the two most evil words in this world, our government can suck in before the entire U.S. economic system implodes and crumbles into a giant mound of useless paper money!  The U.S. government will end up with nothing more than a vintage Monopoly game board with a “Go Directly to Jail” card for anyone who opposes its repressive regime.

By John Loeffler

Dark History of DuPont, Monsanto’s ‘Other’ Competition!

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Bayer, chemicals, corporations, Dow Chemical, Dupont, evil, GMOs, Monopolies, Monsanto, poisonous, seeds, Syngenta

Dark History of Dupont

Have you heard the difference between rain forest and a jungle? Well rain forest has a PR while a jungle is just a jungle. That’s the difference between Monsanto and DuPont where DuPont is the rain forest. DuPont is an American chemical company and the world’s third largest producer of chemicals, agrochemicals, polymers, safety materials, electronics and genetically modified seeds. DuPont has its facilities in 70 different counties. After ExxonMobil and Dow, DuPont is the third largest producer of chemicals in the United States.

 

DuPont was established in 1802 by Eleuthere Irenee Du Pont. Eleuthere Irenee Du Pont ran away from the French revolution and few years after founded DuPont in US by the money he brought from gunpowder machinery from France. By 1811 DuPont was the largest supplier of gunpowder for US military and positioned itself as being the largest supplier of gunpowder during the U.S. Civil War. From 1902 to 1912 DuPont expanded quickly into production of smokeless powder and dynamite. During WW1 40% of explosive used by world powers was supplied by DuPont. Along the way DuPont purchased smaller chemical companies but in 1902 the government took DuPont to court and declared that it was a monopoly that DuPont was dominating the explosive business. Based on the court ruling DuPont had to create both Atlas Powder Company and Hercules Powder Company. DuPont also founded the first two industrial laboratories and improved its military Rifle. In 1914 DuPont invested and got largely involved in automobile industry. From 1920 to 1935 DuPont discovered the first synthetic rubber, nylon, Teflon and polyester.

During WW2 from 1941 to 1945 DuPont was the largest producer of war supplies. DuPont also played an important role in Manhattan Project and production of the first atomic bomb during WW2 that was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During the same war DuPont produced 4.5 billion pounds of explosive for military. However the horrors of war made DuPont huge profit. From 1950s to 1970s DuPont came up with developing new raw materials like Dacron, Mylar, Lycra, Corfarm and Corian. In 1981 DuPont got into a bidding war with Seagram Company who owned some shares in Conoco to purchase Conoco Inc. Conoco was a major American oil & gas producer and acquisition of Conoco made DuPont one of the top ten US producers of oil and gas. In 1999 DuPont sold its shares to Philips Petroleum Company.

In 1999 DuPont became the largest seed company and producer of hybrid seeds that is used for production ofgenetically modified corn and soy. DuPont is among the four top biotech companies that produce 100% of genetically modified seeds and 60% of world pesticides. The other three biotech companies are Monsanto, Syngenta and Bayer. These top biotech companies are also the largest producers of pesticides in the world. The farmers get subsidy to produce soybeans and corn from the government. Most of these genetically modified cornand soy is used to feed the livestock to fatten them up. 60% of genetically modified corn and 47% of genetically modified soybeans produced in US are fed to livestock.

DuPont pays millions of dollars to food lobbyist to defend its policies; last year DuPont spent $4.8 million for lobbying. However most of these food lobbyists who aggressively peruse the policies of DuPont & Monsanto have worked or are working for the government. In 2007 presidential campaign Obama mentioned that the department of agriculture wasn’t department of agribusiness and promised to put people’s need ahead of financial interests. However some officials in charge of USDA or FDA have been defending, lobbying or working for biotech companies like Monsanto and DuPont:

– Michael Taylor: Former VP in Monsanto who is now the FDA deputy food commissioner

– Tom Vilsack: Former pro-biotechnology governor of Iowa that was assigned as USDA secretary.

– Roger Beachy: Former director of Monsanto who is now director of USDA

– Elena Kagan: Took Monsanto’s side against organic farmers in Roundup Ready Alfalfa case and is now nominated to Supreme Court

– Rajiv Shah: Former director of pro-biotech Gates Foundation who served as USDA secretary

– Linda Strachan: Monsanto’s and DuPont’s representative who is assistant secretary for Department of Agriculture and EPA

– Islam Siddiqui: Former DuPont and Monsanto VP who is now the representative of agriculture negotiator for US trade

– Ramona Romero: Corporate console to DuPont that now is nominated as General Counsel for USDA In 2002 based on the Institute of Political Economy Research DuPont was marked the number one among 100 of contributors to air pollution in the US.

Over the last decade DuPont has been involved in polluting the environment, air and water. In 2002 the residents of Wood County in West Virginia were informed by the spokesman of West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection that their air was contaminated by DuPont’s plant producing toxic chemical called C8 (PFOA). In 2011 researchers found out that there is a correlation betweenhigh blood pressure in pregnant women and C8. This high blood pressure epidemic is usually combined with protein leakage into urine that can cause pre-eclampsia that can threaten the health and life of both mother and baby.

Mid-Ohio valley residents’ water was also contaminated with C8 as a result of nearby DuPont’s plant. Medical studies show that three out of four residents’ of Mid-Ohio Valley have signs of pregnancy induced hypertension and pre-eclampsia due to high exposure to C8. Teflon cookware and other nonstick products are made from PFOA or C8. Although DuPont insist that exposures to C8 chemical known as PFOA doesn’t cause any health issues, studies show that exposure to C8 by consuming food in Teflon cookware that contain C8 over a period of time can cause immune system disorder, thyroid, liver problems and higher cholesterol rate in children.

In 2005 Glenn Evers, the former top DuPont scientist revealed that at least by 1981 DuPont was aware of the health side effects of using paper chemical coating used for food packaging. This dangerous chemical is like C8 that accumulates in people over time and has adverse side effects. In 2006 officials of the United Steelworkers revealed a report that showed DuPont’s safety program called STOP is based on the idea that all injuries are caused by workers. However Mike Wright head of Health Safety and Environmental Department reveals that the last 20 year of investigation shows the root of many catastrophic incidents in DuPont has been related to unsafe hazards, conditions, workplace and failure to file industrial accidents report to OSHA. Based on Ken Test head of USW DuPont Council many of DuPont workers and retirees suffer from being exposed to dangerous toxic substances and chemicals. DuPont and Monsanto are both doing a very good job deceiving the public opinion and covering up their lies, crimes and misdeeds and so far they have been contaminating our environment, air and water with their dangerous chemicals and substances.

Although DuPont and Monsanto agreed to work with each other on sharing their biotechnology on production of genetically modified seeds and crops, Monsanto is now suing DuPont for violation of license agreement between the two companies in 2002. At the same time DuPont is suing Monsanto for its monopoly and restricted agriculture policies that engage no competitors and illegally holding to the details of federal patent about Roundup Ready. DuPont created its own genetically modified soy bean product called Optimum GAT that was meant to compete with Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GM soy product. However the Optimum GAT failed to perform and DuPont added Monsanto’s Roundup into its own existing Optimum GAT. So Monsanto is taking DuPont to court for failing to establish license agreement between the two. However if Monsanto’s patent is enforceable and deemed void anyone could start using Roundup Ready which would be a huge victory for food freedom.

Jeffrey M. Smith:  The GMO Threat (One hour long – HD video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oPvkZv5MfRw

Source:  http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-foods/dupont-history/#Teflon

*Editing Note:  Dow Chemical is another biotech company not listed in this article!

 

Assassin in Chief?

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"Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen Who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al-Qa'ida or An Associated Force", "Laws of War", "targeted killing", "War Room", 1641, 1798, 2012, 370 Years, 5th Amendment, Abolished, ACLU, Activities, administration, American Citizens, Americans, Amicus Curiae Brief, Article III, Article III Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, Article III Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, Artificial Executive "Process", Assassin, Attorneys, August 21, Belief, Bill Olson, Breached, Charles Lee, Chief, Chris Hedges, CIA Director, Constitution, Constitution's Third Article, Constitutional Law, Court, Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Documents, DOD, DOJ, Drones, English Parliament, Executioner, Executions, Executive Branch, Federalist No. 43, Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause, Flawed, Founders, Founding Fathers, Fourth Amendment Search and Seizure, Freedom of Information Act, Government Excess, Herb Titus, Illegal, Inhumane, James Madison, John Adams, John Brennan, Judge, Judge Colleen McMahon, Judicial Process, Jury, Kill, King Council's Court of Star Chamber, Lawyers, Leaked, Legal, Legality, Liberty, Life, Location, murder, National Defense Authorization Act, NBC News, NDAA, New York Times, Obama, Obama Administration, Open Court, P.C., Property, Prosecutor, Protections, Reagan, Regent Law School, Second Circuit, secrecy, secret, Section 3, Senior Officials, Star Chamber, terrorists, Testimony, Treason, Treason Clause, Trial, U.S., U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Constitution, U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. District Court, U.S. Justice Department, U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Soil, Unconstitutional, Undisclosed, Unknown Power, violation, White Paper, William J. Olson, Worldwide, Yemen

Assassin in Chief?

February 7, 2013

By Herbert W. Titus and William J. Olson

Exercising a power that no prior president ever thought he possessed — a power that no prior president is known to have exercised — President Obama admitted that he ordered the execution of American citizens, not on a battlefield, based on his belief that they were involved in terrorist activities.  It is known that at least three U.S. citizens, including a 16-year old boy, were killed on the president’s order in drone strikes in Yemen in 2011.

As the worldwide drone program ramps up, there have been increasing calls for the president to reveal the basis for his claimed authority.  Only a few weeks ago, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon denied both the ACLU’s and New York Times‘ requests under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain any and all legal documents prepared in support of the president’s claim of unilateral powers.  While Judge McMahon was concerned that the documents “implicate serious issues about the limits on the power of the Executive Branch under the Constitution and laws of the United States, and about whether we are indeed a nation of laws not of men,” she felt constrained by precedent to withhold them.  Now, a bipartisan group of 11 senators has written a letter to president Obama asking for “any and all legal opinions” that describe the basis for his claimed authority to “deliberately kill American citizens.”

However, not until the Senate began gathering information for hearings on John Brennan’s confirmation as CIA director, to begin February 7, has public attention finally been focused on this remarkable presidential usurpation of power.

On the night of February 4, the walls of secrecy were breached when NBC News released a leaked U.S. Justice Department White Paper entitled “Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen Who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al-Qa’ida or An Associated Force.”  Now we can see why the Department of Justice has been so reluctant to share the basis for its legal analysis.  It is deeply flawed — based on a perverse view of the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause.  Additionally, the white paper completely ignores the procedural protections expressly provided in the Constitution’s Third Article — those specifically designed to prohibit the president from serving as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner.

The white paper does not seek to delimit the federal power to kill citizens, but simply sets out a category of “targeted killing” of American citizens off the battlefield on foreign soil which it deems to be clearly authorized.  Moreover, this power is not vested exclusively in the president, or even the secretary of defense, or even officials within the Department of Defense — rather, it can be relied on by other senior officials of unspecified rank elsewhere in government.

According to the white paper, there are only three requirements to order a killing.  First, “an informed high-level official of the U.S. government has determined that the targeted individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States.”  Second, capture is “infeasible.”  And third, the ” operation would be conducted in a manner consistent with the applicable law of war principles.”  Indeed, from the white paper, it is not clear why killings of U.S. citizens on American soil would be judged by a different standard.

Mimicking a judicial opinion, the White Paper employs pragmatic tests developed by the courts to supplant the plain meaning of the Fifth Amendment Due Process and Fourth Amendment Search and Seizure texts.  Balancing away the constitutionally protected interests of the citizen in life, liberty, and property against the more important “‘realities’ of the conflict and the weight of the government’s interest in protecting its citizens from an imminent attack,” the Justice Department lawyers have produced a document worthy of the King Council’s Court of Star Chamber — concluding that the U.S. Constitution would not require the government to provide notice of charges, or a right to be heard, “before using lethal force” on a U.S. citizen suspected of terrorist activity against his country.  How very convenient.  The Obama administration lawyers appear to have forgotten that the Star Chamber was abolished by the English Parliament in 1641 in order to restore the rule of law adjudicated by an independent judiciary, terminating the rule of men administered by the king’s courtiers.

Also, conspicuously missing from the Justice Department’s constitutional analysis is any recognition that the Founders already balanced the life, liberty, and property interests of an American citizen suspected of “levying war against [the United States], or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort,” and provided them the specific procedural protections in Article III of  the Constitution.  When a U.S. citizen is suspected of treason, the constitutional remedy is not to invent new crimes subject to the summary execution at the pleasure of the president and his attorneys.  In Federalist No. 43, James Madison proclaimed that the Treason Clause would protect citizens “from new-fangled and artificial treasons … by inserting a constitutional definition of the crime, fixing the proof necessary for conviction of it[.]”  To that end, the Constitution does not permit the Obama lawyers to invent an elastically defined offense of “an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States,” in substitution for the constitutionally concrete definition of “levying war against [the United States], or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”

Moreover, Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution requires trial in “open court” — not in some secret “war room” in an undisclosed location.  That same section of Article III requires proof by “the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession” — not by a unilateral “determin[ation] that the targeted individual poses an imminent threat of an attack against the United States.”  Finally, as is true of “all crimes,” Article III, Section 2 requires “trial … by jury” on a charge of treason, not trial by some unidentified “high-level official of the U.S. government[,]” no matter how well-“informed” he may be.  In short, the Constitution provides that an American citizen must be tried and punished according to the judicial process provided for the crime of treason, not according to some newfangled and artificial executive “process” fashioned by nameless collection of lawyers.

These nameless lawyers have also ignored the Justice Department’s own venerable precedents.  The White Paper relies on the “laws of war” — but laws of war do not control here.  On August 21, 1798, U.S. Attorney General Charles Lee — serving under President John Adams — directed to the U.S. secretary of state an official opinion in which he determined that in the undeclared state of war between France and the United States, “France is our enemy; and to aid, assist, and abet that nation in her maritime warfare, will be treason in a citizen[, who] may be tried and punished according to our laws[, not like a French subject, who must be] treated according to the laws of war.”

It is a measure of how far we have fallen as a nation — not only that President Obama asserts and exercises such a terrible power, but that only 11 U.S. senators would be willing to affix their names to a letter to ask the Obama administration to provide its legal reasoning.  If John Brennan is confirmed as CIA director, and the killings of U.S. citizens continue based on this whitewash of a white paper, then the U.S. Senate will have yielded up to the president without even a fight the power to kill citizens without judicial due process — a power that has been unknown in the English-speaking world for at least 370 years. 

Herb Titus taught constitutional law for 26 years, concluding his academic career as founding dean of Regent Law School.  Bill Olson served in three positions in the Reagan administration.  They now practice constitutional law together, defending against government excess, at William J. Olson, P.C.  They filed an amicus curiae brief supporting a preliminary injunction in the Chris Hedges challenge to the detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (“NDAA”), addressing the Treason Clause, and also filed an amicus curiae brief in that case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  They can be reached atwjo@mindspring.com or twitter.com/OlsonLaw.

Source:  http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/02/assassin_in_chief.html

Military Terror Hits US Cities As Veterans Banned From Owning Guns

February 23, 2013 Update:  As of late 2012, the figure for the # of U.S. soldiers serving/had served in Iraq &/Or Afghanistan shows about 770,000 troops suffering from PTSD!  This is a MAJOR problem that our government owes to its soldiers to help fix as best as possible!  That’s not being done…instead, just the opposite!  Veterans are being turned away, especially for psychiatric treatment, in droves!

 

The weekly Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) report on current-growing trends in the United States warns that US military forces have begun acclimating their citizens to open warfare striking terror into these otherwise normal people’s lives, while at the same time the Obama regime has banned nearly 500,000 American veterans from owning guns.

According to this report, during the past week residents of Houston, Texas were terrorized when US Army helicopters and massive gunfire shattered their calm existence, and as described by Isaac Robertson Jr. who in talking to local reporters about a call he received from his wife stated, “She told me ‘don’t come home it sounds like we’re in a war zone. Guns, shooting, helicopters flying around the house.”

Likewise, this report continues, Miami, Florida residents were shocked this past week when “diving Blackhawk’s, blank rounds of machine gun fire, strafing runs, troops rappelling from choppers, and road blockades” destroyed the calm in their city like the US military had done to those living in Houston.

The popular American dissident website, Infowars.com, in their reporting on these unprecedented “shock drills”state that “Military “exercises” in populated urban environments are now so routine, so commonplace, they are no longer reported by the national media and are left as “human interest” stories for local news stations.”

One aptly astute commentary on these US military “shock drills” further states, “This is becoming painfully clear due to the fact that the military trains for what they think they’re going to do. If they are planning to fight in the desert, they would train in the desert and obviously if they are going to be fighting in a metropolitan setting in the United States, they would train in an American city. Unfortunately, this is exactly what we are witnessing: increasing amount of training in urban American environments.”

Even worse, this report continues, and as confirmed by US news reports, the US military last year built a mock city roughly the size of downtown San Diego that has risen in a remote Southern California desert to train their forces to fight in urban environments. The $170 million urban training center was unveiled last January at the Twentynine Palms military base, 170 miles northeast of San Diego. The 1,560-building facility will allow troops to practice and refine skills that can be used around the world, the US Marine Corps said.

Russian military analysts contributing to this MFA report note that the building of this massive urban warfare center at Twentynine Palms is “extremely troubling” due to its “radical departure” from the US militaries Fort Irwin National Training Center (NTC) which is the major training area for American troops being trained for warfare.

Where the NTC focuses on training American troops for war scenarios in their current theaters of operations, these analysts say, Twentynine Palms was built exclusively to train them for operating in US cities against their own citizens with the emphasis on protecting corporate buildings (banks, government buildings, etc.) over the lives of their supposed enemies.

Another troubling aspect to Twentynine Palms, this MFA report says, was the Obama regime discontinuing in 2010 its listing as a census-designated place (CDP) thus depriving the American people of knowing how many tens of thousands of troops are being trained to invade their nation’s cities.

Of perhaps even greater concern to the American people, this report continues, was President Obama’s signing three “presidential memoranda” on 16 January, of which the first was directing all US federal agencies, including the military, to identify relevant records to be put into his nations National Instant Criminal Background CheckSystem (NICS) which designates those who are able to buy weapons.

Where the propaganda US media reported to the American people that Obama had signed 23 “executive orders” relating to gun control, this report says, Russian legal analysts note that no such thing occurred. Rather, these analysts say, Obama initiated “executive actions,” knowing that the former (executive orders) would have to be made public, but the latter (executive actions) can, and was done in secret with no American being able to see for themselves what his full actions against them really are.

Those most directly targeted by Obama’s “executive actions” from owning weapons, this MFA report says, are the 247,243 US veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who were “coded with potential PTSD” between Oct. 1, 2001 and June 30, 2012, and up to 13% of the estimated 1 million men and women who served in the Vietnam war who are still alive and have been designated with PTSD which adds another 130,000 to this “not allowed to buy guns” list.

This past December (2012) Obama regime supporters in the US Senate, while passing the sweeping, $631 billion defense bill, known as The 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), forbade US veterans being labeled with PTSD from appealing to US Federal Courts against their designation with New York Democrat Senator Charles E. Schumer even stating that they were criminals when he stated: “But if you are mentally ill, whether you’re a veteran or not, just like if you’re a felon, if you’re a veteran or not, and you have been judged to be mentally infirm, you should not have a gun.”

To who in the US has the power to designate American veterans as being “mentally ill” was settled this past 31 August 2012 when Obama signed an Executive Order titled Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families which gave his regime the sole power of evaluating the mental health status of all US military veterans, regardless of when they served.

With Obama now having the power to designate all US military veterans as being “mentally ill,” and with him now having the NDAA forbidding these veterans from being able to appeal their “mentally ill” designation, and with them all now all being placed into the NICS database which will forbid them from buying weapons, this report concludes with the stunning fact that there is nothing to prevent him from disarming every single military veteran in the entire United States.

With Obama now seemingly adhering to China’s Communist Parties order last week to totally disarm the American people, and with his Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief, Janet Napolitano, openly praising the trampling of the Posse Comitatus laws which have kept US military forces from operating in America against its own citizens, one can only wonder how much more these people can endure under a tyrannical regime that has turned their once vaunted American Dream into what it has become today…an American Nightmare.

Source:  http://www.eutimes.net/2013/02/military-terror-hits-us-cities-as-veterans-banned-from-owning-guns/

Obama’s Appointed FDA Czar, Michael “Monsanto” Taylor Must Go!

Tags

abortion, agriculture, Americans, appointed, Barack Obama, cancer, corporations, czar, Deadly, farmers, FDA, food, Food and Drug Administration, food prices, food safety, Genetically modified food, Genetically modified organism, GMOs, greed, King & Spalding, labels, Lethal, mega-banks, Michael Taylor, Michelle Obama, Monsanto, Obama, Obama Administration, Occupy Monsanto, petitions, power-hungry, sick, takeover, U.S, United States, White House

Obama promised to get labels on genetically modified food (GMOs) way back in 2007 (video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqaaB6NE1TI) before even winning the presidency!  He said that all Americans have the right to know what is in their food.  What he said, and what he’s done are polar opposites!  He started his job at the White House by hiring dozens of Monsanto employees to work for him, mainly through the FDA!  How much Monsanto $money$ did Obama accept to win the presidential election?  It is a good question that seems to be impossible to answer due to a cover-up!  Here’s the scary part:

Michael “Monsanto” Taylor is the epitome of the toxic revolving door between industry and government! From representing Monsanto at the law firm King & Spalding, to overseeing Monsanto at the FDA, to working for the USDA & approving unlabeled GMOs, to working for King & Spalding again, to working for Monsanto as their chief lobbyist, to finally returning back at the FDA as Obama’s “Food Czar!” For nearly two decades Michael Taylor has been called out for his close ties to Monsanto.  Now, I’m calling him out again, but this time it must be “Out The Door!”

President Obama said he would not have lobbyists drown out the voices of the American people. That is a broken promise thanks to corporate takeover of our government by the 1% elite such as CEOs, Wall St., “too-big-to-fail” mega-banks and giant corporations, to include mammoth Monsanto!  Since 2010 Michael “Monsanto” Taylor has overseen “Food Safety” at the FDA, and since that time millions of people have demanded and petitioned that the FDA require labeling of genetically engineered foods. Instead of listening to the wishes of the American people, Michael Taylor has done nothing but help Monsanto make more money at the expense of American food safety.  Genetically engineered foods, better known as GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), are toxic to the environment and deadly to humans and animals that consume them!  A few examples of GMO “side effects” are severe allergies, digestive problems including holes in the stomach, glandular shut down, unintentionally aborted pregnancies, sterilization, kidney and liver failure, and many, many forms of cancer.  Obama and Michael “Monsanto” Taylor are not working in the best interests of our country’s well-being!  Instead, they are working on their portfolios to become even wealthier than what they already are.  Meanwhile, Americans are paying the price with declining health, and skyrocketing food prices!  Our own farmers are being sued by Monsanto as well!  Taylor was a planned appointment by Obama.  A plan that’s had disastrous consequences for the U.S.!

Our FDA’s “Food Czar,” Michael Taylor, must be immediately terminated by Obama due to dereliction of duty (the shameful failure to fulfill one’s obligations) and total disregard for human safety, for starters!  Our government has been overrun by former Monsanto employees, and our president is responsible for correcting this epic mess that he created, starting at the top!  It is at least the morally right move, and a move that the other 99% of us would like to see!  Checkmate, Michael “Monsanto” Taylor!

Sources & Educational Material:

Family Farmers Continue Fight in Landmark Lawsuit Against Monsanto:  http://ecowatch.org/2013/farmers-fight-monsanto/

Stand up: Family Farmers vs. Monsanto:   http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/farmersvs_monsanto/

Monsanto Assault on U.S. Farmers Detailed in New Center for Food Safety Report:  http://www.nwrage.org/content/monsanto-assault-us-farmers-detailed-new-center-food-safety-report (Lawsuits have increased to at least 144 since this undated report to include over 700 U.S. farmers!)

Obama Promises to Label GMOs:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqaaB6NE1TI

A NEW LAW TO STOP CORRUPTION!!

“Action Alert!” We need a new law that will force politicians to REPRESENT US, not $money$!

PLEASE TAKE ACTION HERE:http://act.unitedrepublic.org/event/cosponsor/8184 …

Get Money out of Politics:
Stop lobbyist bribery, End secret money & Empower voters.

• 1

  Stop politicians from taking bribes

  Prohibit members of Congress from soliciting and receiving contributions from entities, special interests, and lobbyists from industries they regulate.

  Members of Congress who sit on powerful committees get extraordinary amounts of money from special interests regulated by those committees. Politicians routinely host fundraisers, and invite lobbyists to contribute to their campaigns. The result is a Congress made up of politicians dependent on those special interests to raise the money necessary to win reelection. Politicians are forced to create laws that are favorable to those interests, often at the expense of the public interest.

• 2

  Limit super PAC contributions and “coordination”

  Require SuperPACs to abide by the same contribution limits as other political committees. Toughen rules regarding SuperPACs’ and other groups’ coordination with political campaigns and political parties.

  The Supreme Court’s Citizens United and subsequent court cases ruled that SuperPACs have the right to raise and spend unlimited money influencing elections, so long as the SuperPACs do not coordinate with the candidate campaigns. Since Citizens United, we’ve seen tremendous coordination between campaigns and their SuperPACs, making a mockery of the “independence” that the courts thought would exist. SuperPACs have become extensions of the campaigns, and allow mega-donors to exert undue influence on election outcomes.

• 3

  Prevent job offers as bribes

  Close the “revolving door” so that elected representatives and their senior staff can no longer sell off their legislative power in exchange for high-paying jobs when they leave office: seven years for all members of Congress, five years for senior congressional staff. (Currently two years for Senators, one year for Representatives, and one year for senior staff.)

  Today, politicians routinely move straight from Congress to lucrative lobbying jobs on K Street, in order to influence their former colleagues and friends. Senior staffers who work for congressmen do the same thing. This corrupts policymaking in two ways: members and their staff anticipate high-paying jobs with lobbying firms, and routinely do favors to their future employers while still in Congress; and once out of congress they enjoy undue access and influence to members of Congress. The biggest spenders hire these influencers, and win policy as a result.

• 4

  Call all people who lobby, lobbyists

  Significantly expand the definition of and register all lobbyists to prevent influencers from skirting the rules.

  Today, the definition of who is a lobbyist—and who is not—is weak. The result: members of congress and their staff end up working as “historical advisors” (for all intents and purposes as lobbyists) to skirt the law while receiving big money to influence policy. Lawmakers are not subject to accountability since the public does not know all the people they meet with who try to sway them on policy decisions.

• 5

  Limit lobbyist donations

  Limit the amount that lobbyists and their clients can contribute to federal candidates, political parties, and political committees to $500 per year and limit lobbyist fundraising for political campaigns. Federal contractors are already banned from contributing to campaigns: extend that ban to lobbyists, high-level executives, government relations employees, and PACs of federal government contractors.

  Lobbyists currently must abide by the same contribution limits to electoral campaigns as everyone else: $2500 per election. Lobbyists “bundle” these $2500 contributions with other lobbyists, and individuals working for special interests that seek to influence politicians. This adds up to serious money and political favors in return.

• 6

  End secret money

  Mandate full transparency of all political money. Require any organization that spends $10,000 or more on advertisements to elect or defeat federal candidates to file a disclosure report online with the Federal Election Commission within 24 hours. List each of the donors who gave $10,000 or more to the organization to run such ads. This includes all PACs, 501c nonprofits, or other groups that engage in electioneering.

  Elections are being flooded with secret money funneled through “501c” organizations that are not required to disclose the names of donors. 501c’s either spend money directly to influence elections, or make unlimited contributions to SuperPACs. This allows secret political donors to flood elections with money and, thus, influence outcomes.

• 7

  Level the playing field with a small donor tax rebate

  Empower voters by creating an annual $100 Tax Rebate that can be used for qualified contributions to one or more federal candidates, political parties, and political committees. In order to be eligible to receive Tax Rebate contributions, candidates, political parties, and political committees must limit the contributions they receive to no more than $500 per contributor per calendar year or contributions from entities that are funded exclusively by Tax Rebates and small-dollar contributions.

  Nearly $6 billion was spent on the 2012 elections, and the vast majority came from big special interest donors. In 2008, less than 0.1 percent of Americans contributed $2,300 or more. Politicians are dependent on this tiny percentage of the population. To change this, we need to dramatically increase the number of small donors to politics, so that politicians become dependent on everyday Americans and not moneyed interests. That’s how we get politicians who actually fight for the general public.

• 8

  Disclose “bundling”

  Require federal candidates to disclose the names of individuals who “bundle” contributions for the member of Congress or candidate, regardless of whether such individuals are registered lobbyists.

• 9

  Enforce the rules

  Strengthen the Federal Election Commission’s independence and strengthen the House and Senate ethics enforcement processes. Provide federal prosecutors the additional tools necessary to combat corruption, and prohibit lobbyists who fail to properly register and disclose their activities from engaging in federal lobbying activities for a period of two years.

  Federal agencies routinely fail to enforce the anti-corruption rules that already exist because their leadership are appointed by those they are supposed to regulate. The result is an elections system where even lax rules can be skirted or broken with impunity.

Sounds tough? It is. But this is why it will work

• Reform will only occur at a moment of crisis. We will harness public anger and demand for change.
• We must start with the people, not Congress, and gather an unprecedented coalition.
• We must engage liberals, conservatives and independents. Highly visible spokespeople from all sides will aid us.
• Politicians will only act if forced to by electoral pressure. We will unseat politicians who don’t cooperate.
• The solution must be comprehensive. Incremental reform won’t work: it has to come as a package.

The specifics

Why?

Campaign finance isn’t just about money, or even special interests — it’s about leveling the playing field. It’s about who we are as a people, and what we stand for as a nation. It’s about the quality, credibility and integrity of the issues that get argued, hashed out and decided every single day in Washington and in statehouses – issues like health care, immigration and Social Security that impact millions. It’s about what we can do, as voters, to make sure everybody gets a fair shake. Not just a few, or those with deep pockets. In short, this is about America’s character.

The campaign

Represent.Us is an unprecedented movement of conservatives and progressives to pass the American Anti-Corruption Act. The Act is comprehensive legislation written by former Federal Elections Commission Chairman Trevor Potter with help from dozens of constitutional attorneys, advocates and academics. It would sever the tie between politicians and special interest lobbyists, without requiring an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Who’s behind the campaign?

Our board of advisors can be found on the Represent.Us website

Our plan to win

Five steps:

1. We started with the people, not Congress. Unlike most previous legislative reform efforts, the campaign to pass the American Anti-Corruption Act began by mobilizing a massive national movement. The campaign is enlisting disillusioned members of organizations beaten by K Street: tax reform, energy, environment, healthcare, and economic along with every American who cares about issues that are always beaten by monied interests.
2. We are a coalition of liberals, conservatives, and independents. Americans self-identify as roughly one-third liberal, one third moderate, and one third conservative; and nearly all support sweeping reform. Highly visible supporters from the right and the left will inoculate us against the maddeningly effective nonsense of spin doctors who label basic democratic values as radical or un-American.
3. Represent.Us will force politicians to act through electoral pressure. We will unseat politicians who fail to co-sponsor the Act in its entirety. Hard-hitting political accountability is the only strategy that will compel our leaders to fundamentally change the system.
4. The American Anti-Corruption Act is comprehensive. For decades, legislative efforts have been focused on singular policy reforms. Political money is like water, with the uncanny ability to slip through the cracks. The Act puts sweeping reform agenda into one airtight package.
5. Reform will only occur at a moment of crisis. The 2012 election cycle was wrought with the worst political corruption in American history. We are harnessing the outcomes of the crisis – anger and demands for ambitious change – to position a consensus reform solution for legislative action. The American Anti-Corruption Act is the solution.

The Represent.Us timeline

Nov. 2012: Launch the American Anti-Corruption Act and Represent.Us.

Nov. 2012: Call for one million Citizen Co-sponsors.

Late 2013: Introduce the Anti-Corruption Act to Congress and ask every member to co-sponsor it.

Early 2014: Unseat members of Congress who refuse to co-sponsor the Anti-Corruption Act.

Beyond: Throughout history, campaigns that come from the people have been the only way to create real change. When the people lead, the leaders will follow.

How this campaign complements the efforts to amend the constitution

We support those trying to amend the constitution to get money out, and we want them to succeed. We also believe that winning reform is like climbing Mount Everest. If you’re at base camp and you have enough climbers, you should send a few teams up different routes to increase the likelihood of success. That’s what Represent.Us is about… adding another team, and taking a different but complementary path… and rooting for each other along the way. An amendment requires two thirds of the Congress and ratification by three quarters of the state legislatures – a mighty task. Common sense requires other proposals co-exist alongside those efforts.

The Anti-Corruption Act has been crafted for the past year by a top-caliber team of constitutional and campaign finance attorneys. The Act was written by former Federal Elections Commission Chairman Trevor Potter, with help from dozens of constitutional attorneys, advocates and academics. It will sever the tie between politicians and special interest lobbyists — without requiring an amendment to the U.S. constitution. We received feedback from most of the other reform organizations in the field as we focused on taking the best legislative ideas and packing them together into one omnibus bill… and moving it forward as one proposal.

The Anti-Corruption Act is completely transformative, and will end business as usual in Washington. Most importantly, our strategy is in no way competitive with or damaging to constitutional amendment efforts. Those efforts are being led by some of the finest organizations and activists – many of whom have already joined our effort.

The constitutionality of the Anti-Corruption Act

The Anti-Corruption Act has been crafted with a sharp eye toward avoiding provisions that could be overturned – even by the current Supreme Court. According to feedback from a dozen top constitutional lawyers, we have done that. While the Act does not eliminate SuperPAC’s, it does curtail their power while protecting free speech rights. It prevents them from coordinating with candidates; it limits contributions to SuperPACs that do not act truly independent of campaigns, and it limits the ability of secret “501c” nonprofits to funnel money to SuperPACs.

We work with many other reform groups. We all meet on the phone regularly to keep each other abreast of our plans. We spent several months vetting Represent.Us and The American Anti-Corruption Act with nearly every group, and we collaborate with various groups on actions and sign-ons.

For this campaign, we’re making a concerted effort to enlist the active support of groups and constituencies that have not historically been a major part of the reform movement. Our proposal is specially designed to be both hard-hitting and appeal broadly: from Occupy on the left to the Tea Party on the right; Republicans, Democrats and everyone in between.

Get Money out of Politics: Stop lobbyist bribery, End secret money & Empower voters!

Join me in getting dirty, dark $money$ out of politics please:

act.unitedrepublic.org/event/cosponsor/8184/

The American Anti-Corruption Act:  http://anticorruptionact.org/

 THANK YOU!! Together, we can end this nightmare, and end the corruption before it ends us!

Pass this along to everyone you know who can sign on to Re-Unite the United States!!

We need to show our President and Congress what non-partisanship looks like!!

Let’s FINALLY get rid of Citizens United, lobbyist monetary influence, Super-PACS with all

of those annoying t.v. ads during a election year, too-big-to-fail mega-banks like JP Morgan,

Citigroup & Wells Fargo who destroyed our economy and your mortgage & retirement pension along

with Wall St.!  Take away the greed, and the power goes too! 🙂  Let’s give the power back to

the citizens of the U.S. where it belongs and not the above-listed!  Thank you!

John E Loeffler

a.k.a. Johnnie Schmeckpeper

jelo1317@yahoo.com

https://twitter.com/jelo1317

https://johnniesblog.wordpress.com/

🙂

The Sad State Of Our Society! by John Loeffler

From the U.S. debt crisis to the growing disparity between the poor and the rich, our nation is in a unprecedented free-fall into a economic abyss!

The complacent, “I don’t give a damn” state of America is quite evident to me, and

it is a serious pandemic in our country!  Our entire infrastructure is collapsing around

us and in on us, yet we fail to rise up and question the intentions of our “Bought And

Paid For Politicians” from the very top to the very bottom of our political system!  The

elected officials that are supposed to work for us are instead working for the mega

corporations from Citibank to Halliburton to Monsanto, and the seemingly endless

list goes on.  Our citizens must stand up, set their partisan issues like abortion and

gay rights aside, and take back control of our country before it’s too late if it is not

already too late!  First, we must put an end to Citizens United’s 2010 Constitutional

Amendment that allows corporations and Super-Pacs that often represent corporations

to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence our politics and who gets elected.

The 2012 presidential election was the most expensive campaign in U.S. history due

to the deeply flawed ideology of Citizens United reaching deep into our legislators’

and presidential hopefuls’ pockets, and stuffing them with a record-breaking amount

of cash.  How much?  Well, the latest figures have not been officially released, but

estimates put the presidential and congressional elections of last year at about

5.8 billion dollars!  That is a leap of 7% from the 2008 elections, and the

presidential campaign has been projected to cost $2.5 billion alone!  Let’s put

a stop to the evils of greed and power that have consumed the United States,

and get rid of Super-Pacs and Citizens United!  Then, we can work on major

issues this country faces like the devastating and record $16 trillion+ that we

have in national debt, getting rid of poisonous and deadly GMOs for good, banning

all forms of dangerous and toxic fracking, and fixing our nation’s severely damaged

infrastructure to include having affordable healthcare for every citizen, moving away

from finite, dirty fossil fuels and investing more in infinite, clean energy sources

(solar, wind, hydro-electric and geothermal), fixing our horrific tax codes, increasing

funding for college education, and repairing our roads and bridges, to name a few!

We can and must act now to keep America moving down the path of positive change

vs. the extremely negative and dismal death trail that we are marching down at this time.

It is not a matter of IF the U.S. economy will collapse but WHEN it will fall into “The Greatest

Depression,” which will make The Great Depression of the 1930’s look like a cake walk

in the park we call home!  Contact your legislators and President Obama.  Let them

know that “We The People” are holding them accountable for the epic disaster we are in

right now.  Use your voting power, increase your knowledge of current events, sign

petitions and “Rally For Righteousness!”  Stop being a “One-Issue Voter,” and look

at the whole puzzle instead of one piece; therefore, limiting your decisions based on

the partisan politics that our leaders want us to stick to in order to keep us divided and

stuck in a worn out, out-dated two-party system!  We deserve better, and we must demand

better now before the road to our future crumbles beneath us!

President Obama:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

House of Representatives:  http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

Senate:  http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Sources:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/08/2012-election-total-spending-costliest-obama-romney-/1#.UO9BBeR–iA

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/08/2012-election-will-be-costliest-yet.html

How The Middle and Lower Classes Will Get Screwed in 2013, Or

16 Things About 2013 That Are Really Going To Stink

 By Michael, on December 27th, 2012

Source:  http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/16-things-about-2013-that-are-really-going-to-stink

The beginning of the year has traditionally been a time of optimism when we all look forward to the exciting things that are going to happen over the next 12 months.  Unfortunately, there are a whole bunch of things about 2013 that we already know are going to stink.  Taxes are going to go up, good paying jobs will continue to leave the country, small businesses will continue to be destroyed, the number of Americans living in poverty will continue to soar, our infrastructure will continue to decay, global food supplies will likely continue to dwindle and the U.S.national debt will continue to explode.  Our politicians continue to pursue the same policies that got us into this mess, and yet they continue to expect things to magically turn around.  But that is not the way that things work in the real world.  Bad decisions lead to bad outcomes.  Instead of realizing that what we are doing is not working, our “leaders” continue to give us more of the same.  As a result, there are going to be a lot of things about 2013 that will not be great.  Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that everything will be “okay” somehow is not going to help anyone.  We’ve got to make people understand exactly what is happening and why it is happening if we ever hope to see real changes.

The following are 16 things about 2013 that are really going to stink…

#1 Taxes Are Going To Go Up

Even if a fiscal cliff deal is reached, some taxes will still go up next year.  And if no deal is reached, there will be a whole bunch of different tax increases in 2013.

According to CBS News, these tax increases would be very painful for the middle class…

If lawmakers fail to work out any sort of deal, there will be severe long-term consequences for the economy: According to the Tax Policy Center, going off the “cliff” would affect 88 percent of U.S. taxpayers, with their taxes rising by an average of $3,500 a year; taxes would jump $2,400 on average for families with incomes of $50,000 to $75,000. Because consumers would get less of their paychecks to spend, businesses and jobs would suffer.

#2 The Middle Class Is About To Be Scorched By The Alternative Minimum Tax

Of more immediate concern for the middle class is the Alternative Minimum Tax.  Many Americans have never heard of the AMT, but it is truly one of the worst things about our tax code.

If Congress does not act, and right now it does not look promising, millions of middle class households will see a massive increase in their tax bills for 2012.

According to one analysis, households that are forced to pay the AMT will end up paying an extra $3,700 in taxes…

Unless Congress acts by the end of the year, more than 26 million households will for the first time face the AMT, which threatens to tack $3,700, on average, onto taxpayers’ bills for the current tax year. Because those people have never paid the AMT, they have no idea they are in its crosshairs — put there by a broader stalemate over tax policy that has kept Congress from limiting the AMT’s reach.

Do you have an extra $3,700 sitting around to send to Uncle Sam?

If not, you had better contact your representatives in Congress and scream like crazy about passing a fix for the AMT.  They have always gotten it done before, but this year there is so much animosity between the Republicans and the Democrats that nothing may end up getting done.

#3 The Economy Will Continue To Get Worse

Despite all of the talk in the mainstream media and from our politicians that our economy is getting better, the truth is that the U.S. economy continued to decline in 2012.  If you doubt this, just read the 75 statisticsin this article.

And there are a whole host of signs that the economy is starting to slow down even more as we enter 2013.  For example, consumer confidence in the United States has experienced its largest two-month drop in over a year, and retail sales during the holiday season turned out to bequite disappointing.

#4 Good Paying Jobs Will Continue To Be Shipped Out Of The United States

Thanks to decades of “free trade agreements”, workers in the United States must directly compete for jobs with hundreds of millions of workers on the other side of the globe that live in countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.

We continue to see millions of jobs being shipped out of the country and our politicians stand by and do nothing.

Most Americans have no idea how this emerging one world economic system works.  The beautiful product that you buy at the big retail store may have been made by someone working in some of the most horrific conditions imaginable.

A 42-year-old woman named Julie Keith recently found this letterinside a box of Halloween decorations that had been made in China…

“If you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here who are under the persecution of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever.

People who work here have to work 15 hours a day without Saturday, Sunday break and any holidays. Otherwise, they will suffer torturement, beat and rude remark. Nearly no payment (10 yuan/1 month).

People who work here, suffer punishment 1-3 years averagely, but without Court Sentence (unlaw punishment). Many of them are Falun Gong practitioners, who are totally innocent people only because they have different believe to CCPG. They often suffer more punishment than others.”

But both political parties continue to tell us how wonderful it is that we are trading with communist China.  They see no problem with the fact that good paying jobs that used to be performed in America are now being performed by slave laborers on the other side of the planet.  And most Americans continue to support this system by filling their shopping carts with lots of stuff that has “made in China” stamped on it.

#5 Small Businesses Will Continue To Be Destroyed

At the same time, small businesses all over America are being strangled to death by taxes and regulations.  Just consider the following numbers from a previous article…

We are told that the economy is supposed to be “recovering”, but the number of “startup jobs” at new businesses has fallen for five years in a row.  According to an analysis of U.S. Department of Labor data performed by economist Tim Kane, there were almost 12 startup jobs per 1000 Americans back in the year 2006.  By 2011, that figure had fallen to less than 8 startup jobs per 1000 Americans.

How is our economy ever going to thrive if we keep killing off our small businesses?

#6 Hunger And Poverty Will Continue To Explode To Unprecedented Levels

As the U.S. economy bleeds jobs and loses small businesses, the number of Americans living in poverty continues to explode.

Here are some numbers to show to people who still don’t understand how desperate the situation is…

-Families that have a head of household under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

-According to U.S. Census data, 57 percent of all American children live in a home that is either considered to be “poor” or “low income”.

-For the first time ever, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  That number has risen by 57 percentsince the 2006-2007 school year.

#7 The Number Of Americans On Food Stamps Will Continue To Increase

If the economy is recovering, then why does the number of Americans on food stamps continue to soar?

As I wrote about yesterday, about 17 million Americans were on food stamps back in the year 2000.

Today, more than 47 million Americans are on food stamps.

Does anyone want to explain to me how that is a sign that things are getting better?

Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps.  Today, about one out of every 6.5 Americans is on food stamps.

How much worse do things have to get before people realize that what we are doing is not working?

#8 Millions Of Americans Are About To Lose Their Unemployment Benefits

During this economic crisis, an unprecedented number of American families have been relying on unemployment benefits in order to stay afloat.

Well, if no agreement is reached in Washington D.C., millions of Americans will shortly lose those benefits…

Three million Americans may become unwitting casualties of the political war in Washington over the fiscal cliff.

Since 2008, the federal government has funded extensions of the unemployment insurance offered by states, more than tripling the amount of aid available to the unemployed in some areas. But the program is expensive, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating it would cost $30 billion to extend it through 2013. President Barack Obama wants to extend the benefits for another year, but Congress has already pared back the program, and Republicans insist it represents the kind of largesse Washington can no longer afford.

#9 Our Infrastructure Will Continue To Rot And Decay

The United States once had the most beautiful infrastructure in the entire world.  Our highways, bridges, airports, railroads, sewer systems and electrical grids were the envy of the entire planet.

Well, now we don’t even have enough money to repair what we already have, so our infrastructure will continue to rot and decay in 2013…

Highways and bridges will need $2.5 trillion in upgrades if they are to survive for another 50 years — a must-do to keep commerce thriving. And that figure doesn’t even take into account the airports, railroads, subways, sewage-treatment plants, waterworks, levees, electric grids, pipelines, and all of those other expensive systems that people ignore until they break down.

#10 Many Of Our Major Cities Will Continue To Be Transformed Into Festering Hellholes

A lot of our major cities are also rapidly degenerating.  Detroit is one of my favorite examples, but the same kinds of things could be said about dozens of other major cities all over the country.  The following is a brief excerpt from one of my recent articles…

If you can believe it, more than 50 percent of all children in Detroit are living in poverty, and close to 50 percent of all adults living in the city are functionally illiterate.  The high school graduation rate in Detroit is down to about 25 percent, and the city has become a breeding ground for gangs and violence.  The number of murders in Detroit is already higher than last year, and recently groups of young men toting AK-47s have been running around robbing gas stations.  How much worse can things possibly get for Detroit?

#11 State And Local Governments Will Find Ways To Squeeze Even More Money Out Of Us

In case you haven’t noticed, state and local governments all over the country are bleeding cash and are desperate for money.  In 2013 you can expect them to continue to find more ways to squeeze even more money out of all of us.  Here is one example…

Over the course of 2013, the District government will add 134 traffic cameras to its network, more than doubling the size of a system that generated $85 million in revenues for the city in its last fiscal year.

Police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump told The Washington Examiner that the city will intensify its camera-based efforts to cite motorists for speeding and stoplight violations while also adding cameras to detect other moving violations.

#12 Drug Cartels Will Continue To Easily Cross Our Borders And Terrorize Our Citizens

The federal government continues to refuse to protect our borders, and that means that drug runners and gang members will continue to pour into the United States.

Down in the Southwest, many ranchers are being absolutely terrorized by these criminals.  The following is from a recent NBC News article…

Just before nightfall, 73-year-old rancher Jim Chilton hikes quickly up and down the hills on his rugged cattle-grazing land south of Tucson, escorting two U.S. Border Patrol agents.

He wants to show them the disturbing discovery he made earlier in the day: a drug-smugglers’ camp on his private property.  Stacked together under a stand of trees are blankets, jackets, food, water, binoculars and bales of marijuana from Mexico wrapped in burlap. The smugglers, themselves, are nowhere in sight and are believed to have fled the area, which is about 10 miles north of the Mexican border.

Chilton has had his house burglarized a couple of times and his family regularly encounters groups of armed drug smugglers coming across from Mexico…

Their cattle fences are frequently cut and paths heading north from Mexico cross their property.  Beckham says a smuggler even fired shots at him while he walked his land with a U.S. Border Patrol agent.  Several illegal border crossers have also approached his house at night–one even reaching his hand into their bathroom window.

“Several years ago, one of my children was taking a shower and had a gentleman reach into the shower while he was in there, and he came out screaming, absolutely refusing to take a shower for the next couple months.”

But even if you don’t live along the border, all of this still affects you.  According to government figures, Mexican drug cartels are actively operating in more than 1,200 U.S. cities right now.  They are probably hard at work in the community where you live.

So what is the Obama administration doing to fix the problem?

Not much.

In fact, the Obama administration is actually encouraging people to come to the U.S. and become dependent on the system.  If you can believe it, there is actually a website run by the Department of Homeland Security that teaches immigrants how to apply for welfare benefits once they get into the United States.

#13 Social Decay Will Continue To Accelerate

All over America we are seeing signs of social breakdown.  Here is yetanother example…

A woman sleeping on a street bench outside a drug store was doused with an accelerant and set on fire early Thursday morning in Van Nuys.

Witnesses told police that a man poured liquid — possibly a beverage containing alcohol — on the sleeping woman at about 1 a.m. outside a Walgreens store near Van Nuys Boulevard and Sherman Way. He lit a match and ran from the location, witnesses told police.

Who would just run up and set a woman on fire?

Sadly, this is not an isolated incident.  For many more examples like this, please see this article: “20 Shocking Examples Of How Sadistic And Cruel People Have Become“.

We need to admit that we have a major problem on our hands.  Violent crime in the United States increased by 18 percent in 2011, and another huge increase is expected when the numbers for 2012 come out.

America is changing, and not for the better.

#14 Global Food Supplies Will Continue To Dwindle

Did you know that for six of the last eleven years the world has consumed more food than it has produced?

As a result, global food reserves have reached their lowest level in almost 40 years.

So what is going to happen if the world continues to eat more food than it makes?

Let us hope that there is not another major drought in 2013.  If there is, we could be looking at a very serious food crunch.

#15 Wall Street Will Continue To Resemble A Giant Casino

Our financial system seems to have not learned any lessons from the financial crash of 2008.

Instead of admitting their mistakes, they just continue to engage in even more reckless behavior.

Today, there are four major U.S. banks that each have more than 40 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives.

At some point that house of cards is going to collapse and we will be facing a derivatives crisis of unprecedented magnitude.

Will it be in 2013?

#16 The U.S. National Debt Will Cross The 17 Trillion Dollar Mark

In 2013, our national debt will blow past the 17 trillion dollar mark and start heading toward 18 trillion dollars.

How stupid can we possibly be?

During the first four years of the Obama administration, the U.S. national debt has grown by about as much as it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that George W. Bush took office.

It really takes something to match more than 200 years of debt accumulation in less than four years.

But our politicians don’t seem to care about all of this debt.  They will continue to steal more than 100 million dollars from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day.  That is beyond criminal, and yet the American people don’t seem to care.

What in the world has happened to this country?

Of course not everything about 2013 will be bad.  Personally, I am looking forward to an exciting year.  I have a new book that will be coming out, and my family is blessed and healthy.  I would like to wish all of you a very blessed 2013.  Things may be falling apart all around us, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have a great year even in the midst of all the chaos.